Secret document dispute Minister’s single-deck claims

The NSW Government’s claims that running single-deck trains through Sydney would allow more people to travel on the trains, has been disputed by a secret internal report.

The report, which was being prepared at the time Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian was revealing plans to run smaller single-deck trains on the north-west rail link, has been kept under wraps by the Minister’s office.

Despite often claiming that single-deck carriages would help shift more people along the line than double-deckers, the government never revealed any detail analysis to back up this claim.

The report suggests that it would be theoretically possible to run single-deck trains at a higher frequency, but that it would be “offset by a reduction is carrying capacity”.

The government announced last year its plans to build a privately run north-west rail link and plans to convert parts of the Illwarra and Bankstown lines to run single-deck trains once a second harbour crossing is built.

You can see the full report on the Sydney Morning Herald news site here http://images.smh.com.au/file/2013/09/23/4770519/trains.pdf